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Sweet Cream Caramel Pecan Swirl Ice Cream

This ice cream is made in several steps. Toast the Pecans. Make the Caramel swirl sauce. Combine the Caramel swirl sauce and the Toasted Pecans. Then make the Sweet Cream ice cream. After the Sweet Cream ice cream is frozen, swirl in the caramel and toasted pecan mixture.
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Servings: 6 cups
Ingredients Instructions Notes

Ingredients
  

Toasted Pecans
  • 1 cup Pecans, chopped (=120 g)
  • 1 Tbsp Butter, melted (=14 g)
  • ¼ tsp Salt
Caramel
  • 1 cup Sugar (=192 g)
  • 1 Tbsp Light corn syrup
  • ¼ cup Water
  • ½ cup Heavy cream (=96 g, add later)
  • 2 Tbsp Softened butter (=28 g, add later)
  • 1 tsp Vanilla (=4.3 g, add later )
Sweet Cream Ice Cream
  • 1 cup Whole milk (=240 g)
  • 2 Whole pasteurized eggs (Large eggs)
  • 3/4 cup Sugar (=144 g)
  • Dash Salt
  • 2 cups Heavy whipping cream (=444 g, add later )

Instructions
 

Toasted Pecans
  1. Put chopped pecans, melted butter, and salt on a silicone mat on a cookie sheet, mix together. Bake 16 minutes at 300 F.
Caramel
  1. Combine sugar, light corn syrup, and water in heavy pan, stir well, slowly bring to boil on medium heat. Once it boils, don't stir or disturb it till it turns a slightly dark amber brown (about 10-25 minutes on medium high heat). Monitor the temperature with an IR or instant immersion thermometer.
  2. As soon as it reaches 370 F remove from heat.
  3. Carefully add the heavy cream, stirring while adding (warning—it will bubble and steam violently). Return to heat if needed to melt lumps. Add softened butter.
  4. Cool for 3 minutes, then add vanilla.
  5. Fold the toasted pecans into the caramel. Cool in fridge or freezer.
Sweet Cream Ice Cream:
  1. Put base mix ingredients except whipping cream in blender. Blend on High for 1 minute.
  2. Add whipping cream. Blend on Medium setting for 30 seconds.
  3. Freeze in ice cream machine.
Combine
  1. After ice cream is frozen, put alternating layers of Sweet Cream Ice Cream and Toasted Pecan Caramel mixture in a container and swirl slightly with a knife.

Notes

This ice cream is a wonderful combination of the separate tastes of sweet cream ice cream, globs of gooey caramel, and roasted buttered pecans.
Another delicious alternative is to mix all of the caramel in the blender along with the Ice Cream Base Mix and freeze it all together, then just add the nuts at the end. This gives all of the ice cream a consistent delicious caramel flavor, rather than having discrete globs of caramel mixed in with sweet cream ice cream. Note that adding this much caramel to the ice cream machine may make it overflow. Also, the mixed in sugar from the caramel will keep the ice cream from freezing as hard in the ice cream machine, but it will harden up later in the freezer.